You thought a holiday would delay The Community Spotlight?
Ho ho ho! Welcome to an incredibly FESTIVE edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight. I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host this week! As many of you celebrate Christmas with friends and family or by yourselves, I just wish to thank you all for all of your support this year. May your holiday celebrations go without a hitch and I wish you to be safe during this time. With that in mind, as Rorie shared during the 12/23/2021 UPF, please be aware the staff may host some unofficial streams from time to time, but for many, the week of 12/27/2021 to 12/31/2021 will be a much-needed break.
Some of you are still asking about when GOTY will be hosted. GOTY content has been moved to some time in January, much like last year. Likewise, there will be community voting for a "User Pick" GOTY, but the start date for that is still unknown. That said, that shouldn't stop any of you from working on the expected GOTY blogs and lists that usually hit the site! In fact, this edition of the Community Spotlight will mark the start of a dedicated section to user-created GOTY content! Scroll down and read how YOU can get your 2021 GOTY list or blog on the next Spotlight!
New Armed and Rangerous up on @giantbomb! @_janjerome and I finish out the year with the originally intended finale of MMPR S1. Not quite at the real finale yet, but we also float some ideas about what a second season might look like for A&R. Check it!https://t.co/sNmYCA9tYq
I played some Chicory on Switch while catching up on Giant Bomb's Thanks I hate it stream. This is what I drew from that. #Bingopic.twitter.com/nLyNLc1dFr
lol sorry Danny, but after making this pose in the episode, it would be almost criminal not to use it for comedic purposes😄 pic.twitter.com/Y1kJ8MQWfW
Author's Note: If you wrote a 2021 GOTY list or blog on the site and you do not see it here, feel free to post it over here on the official community GOTY list sharing thread! I you post anything in the thread after the publishing of this Spotlight, I will try to include your list or blog on the next one.
Haven't we all been in the same situation as Nodima? I think we have.
laughingman whipped up a blog where they share and discuss their most played games in 2021! Check out if there were any discrepancies between the games they spent the most time playing and their overall GOTY list.
JeremyF finally got around to publishing their annual GOTY blog and they wrote a lot for each of the games on their GOTY list. Give it a read and hopefully it inspires YOU to write a GOTY blog as well!
XenturiK provides their "year in review" blog on the site and talk all about the games they played during 2021! Check out the highlights (and lowlights) from their year using the link!
As the title might suggest, "impulse purchases" dominated Nodima's 2021 when it came to video games. Read all about the games they bought on a whim as well as the games they pre-ordered months in advance!
Friend of the site, Kone made another Nuke x Giant Bomb logo crossover and this one is....Yeah. It's cursed!
Luckily not ALL of Kone's art this week is cursed. They also updated their Giant Bomb x LEGO BrickHeadz crossover art by adding in friends of the site and new staff like Danny and Jess.
Blogs
Many thanks to Daavpuke for this AMAZING scan, and best wishes to your health recovery.
Hey everyone, Daavpuke has been around the site and writing for what feels like forever. Unfortunately, they seem to be dealing with some pretty serious health issues and might need some holiday cheer. Read how they are doing and wish them well!
XenturiK watched their fair share of movies this year and annotates which ones they enjoyed the most with their latest blog! If you enjoyed their post and also watched some movies, consider posting a blog of your own!
imunbeatable80 tackles Shovel Knight with their latest "What's the Greatest Video Game" blog post! Read why they think the game's luster has dulled a bit since its first release!
Here's an early Christmas from user ArbitraryWater! They got up a new episode of their "Wheel of Dubious RPGs" feature and this episode checks out Realms of the Haunting and Powerslave (DOS)!
bigsocrates played Cruis'n Blast and shares on Giant Bomb why they think it properly captures the spirit of the Cruis'n series in a modern game. (Paging Rorie if you haven't already played this game.) Additionally, bigsocrates penned a blog that talks about their experiences with The Ascent and they share why it reminds them of old 90s era sci-fi isometric RPGs, for better and worse.
ZombiePie is starting a new blog series on the site where they try to track down the worst adventure game puzzles from the "Golden Age" of adventure games to the post-Myst era. This episode looks at The Dig by LucasArts! Turtle soup anyone?
csl316 is a HUGE Halo fan and discusses why they can't help but feel disappointed with Halo Infinite's campaign and how 343 has approached the world and canon of Halo.
Gamer_152 has some interesting game recommendations this week.
laughingman heard the input from the community and is turning their first "Ranking of Roguelikes" blog into a series! Catch the first episode, which reviews Crown Trick, using the link above!
Moderator Gamer_152 went off the beaten path this week to review some tiny, character-filled indie games. Personally, I'm starting to worry that this "gimmick infringement" might be a sign he has been Mento's alternate account all along!
Some heavy-hitters to vote for as "Sub-Genre of the Year!"
It's time to share your predictions for the top five games you think will be the site's GOTY front-runners during GOTY discussions! What is your dark horse pick? What are you GOTY front-runners? Join the community funning-about now!
Anyone see the latest Matrix movie? Did you enjoy it?
Here's a rather funny poll on the forums! Are roguelikes with RPG elements, deck-builders with RPG elements, or open-world games with RPG elements the "hot shit" sub-genre of 2021? Which do you prefer playing?
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition seems to have revived the yearly "What's The Greatest GTA Game?" debate. Here's a link to the community poll and discussion thread so you can vote for and defend your favorite game.
Are there any community members that have seen The Matrix Resurrections? For those that have, what did you think of the action scenes and the film's two-and-a-half hour running time? Join the community discussion NOW!
The Intellivision Amico has finally shown off the platform's UI and interface! Join the community discussion if it looks like the promised "improvement" from the current console UIs!
Is "Smash TV-like" and accepted term on video game databases? Should I add it to the wiki?
With turn-based strategy games still coming out at a steady clip on virtually every platform do you think it is time for the Front Mission franchise to make a comeback? Are there any Giant Bomb users out there that even remember the Front Mission franchise?
Here's a fun community discussion inspired by Jeff's repeated talks about Crimsonland: which game right now is your quick fix "arcade" style obsessions? Are you playing any Smash TV-like games that came out recently?
Someone played Jedi Outcast and you are going to need to click both links to find out who it was!
Instead of making the usual 2021 GOTY list, user BnjmnH decided to rank EVERY SINGLE GAME they played in 2021! See which games, both new and old, they enjoyed and hated using the link!
ArbitraryWater played a TON of old video games that did not actually come out in 2021 and with this list, they annotated the ones they enjoyed and hated the most!
User Reviews
It's time for some alien-based fun according to moonlightmoth!@moonlightmoth's Returnal review articulates why they think Returnal features some of the best design and aesthetical choices of the year despite it not reinventing the third-person action game wheel.
Many thanks to MrSensible for completely rehauling our wiki game page for the original OutRun. Considered by many to be an arcade game classic, you can learn all about the game's history and many console releases on Giant Bomb!
Alright, I mentioned last week that the Wiki Page of the Week feature wasn't dead, but it needed recommendations from the community. If you can think of anything that is "worthy" of showcasing, send them to me however you can. Also, remember, self-promotion is ENCOURAGED! Also, the feature hasn't made a return yet not due to lack of caring. Things have been busy at the office and the hope is to get the feature back up and running soon-ish.
@voidburger: I posted it on Twitter here as a Quote Tweet. I was actually worried you got offended by it because of all the hard work you put into it trying to make it not look like a butt plug.
Also, "adding in friends of the site and new staff like Danny and Jess." Still no love for Jeff B., even without the Twitter character limit. Keep it up, @zombiepie.
14 Comments